BE BOLD

According to Agnes de Mille:

“The greatest thing [Martha Graham] ever said to me was in 1943 after the opening of Oklahoma!, when I suddenly had unexpected, flamboyant success for a work I thought was only fairly good, after years of neglect for work I thought was fine. I was bewildered and worried that my entire scale of values was untrustworthy. I talked to Martha. I remember the conversation well. It was in a Schrafft’s restaurant over a soda. I confessed that I had a burning desire to be excellent, but no faith that I could be. Martha said to me, very quietly: “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open… No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.””

INSPIRATION
How is literary success defined?
Moonshots: how to make them
16 uncomfortable feelings that actually indicate you’re on the right path
Ira Glass on taste and the creative process
How should one read a book? by Virginia Woolf
Why the pressure to be happy is driving people mad

SLACKS
First episode of TAKE MY WIFE, the new FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC show by Cameron Esposito and Rhea Butcher
Vintage photos of lesbians
Baroness Von Sketch video of hilarity
More vintage photos of lesbians
FUCK YEAH androgynous girls

BE CONCERNED
The CIA is lying to the President and functioning as its own wing of government outside the purview of the Constitution

LA MUSICA
Soy yo
Luchin
Rhiannon Giddens wins the Steve Martin Prize for Excellence in Banjo and Bluegrass

SCIENCE
Dolphins recorded having a conversation for the first time
Great diagrams in anthropology, linguistics, and social theory
NASA photos

Image Credit and link to more sexy Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito
Pro-tip: email subscribers, click title for badass pic of Rhea Butcher

Furtive Friday

POLITIK
Since when do rednecks like cops?
In a Manner That Must Shame God Himself: Kurt Vonnegut on the 1972 Republican Convention in Harper’s Magazine,* November 1972.
Rihanna WORK parody, re: Donald Trump JERK

*It’s behind a paywall—I know—but I swear, it’s the best $6.99 you’ll spend this year. 

ZANIES AND SLACKS
Livin and Lovin in NYC* discusses CRUISING
Cameron Esposito promises no lesbians die in Take My Wife
A map of the lands of human sexuality

*Those in the know are quite aware of this badass podcast started in 2015 by yours truly and the one and only Victator, aka Victoria Davis. We’ve even been featured in the Village VoiceSavage Love, WNYC, and Thrillist. Gale Mayness is ably holding forth as the new cohost, and if you’ve never listened, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do. 

ART BECAUSE LIFE
On Diane Arbus and her life as an artist
Natural history illustrations from the 1500s
Beer can artwork

BARDS AND TROUBADORS
The Tallest Man On Earth, The Wild Hunt full album
Quantic y Anita Tijoux

PURE FUN
Shaquille O’Neal in drag lip-syncing to Beyoncé
James Corden and Michelle Obama in carpool karaoke with Missy Elliott

THE CUTE SET
An owl rides a toy horse
Kitten emerges from pillows

Image credit.